Let's talk about classical music

string quartet

It’s time for another installment of Normal People Listen to Classical Music! In which real humans who don’t usually listen to classical music share their thoughts after listening to a classical piece.

Name: Bonnie

Age: 20

Hometown: McLean, VA

Interests: Short walks to the refrigerator, long walks on the beach, and spending time with friends in comedy clubs

I’d like to say I’m not a COMPLETE novice when it comes to music. I took a music appreciation and a music theory course when I was in high school. However, both classes ended up consisting of listening to Pachelbel’s Canon in D over and over and over to the point where my notebooks became filled with angry puns like “Taco Bells Canon” and “Pachelbel’s Canon needs to be a canOFF.” (Heads up, if you hate puns, leave now.) Needless to say, “music appreciation” didn’t really leave me appreciating music all that much, and as I continued on down the path of life, classical music left me feeling more lost than a Malaysian aircraft. (Is that joke still relevant?)

Then, this past summer a beautiful thing happened to me and I began an internship at The Kennedy Center where I was exposed to more art and music than I could have ever imagined. By the end of the summer I would even say that classical music was alleGROWing on me, so when my friend Carly asked if I would guest write a review for her blog I jumped at the chance, and then took 3 months to actually write the review because balancing 2 comedy groups, several theatrical productions, a career as a stand-up comedian, work, and school is hard…Who sleeps? Anyways, now that you know that classical music isn’t really my FORTE, but puns are, I feel like we can get into the actual review.

The video begins by showcasing the venue, Powerhouse Arena, which appears to be a bookstore and performance space all wrapped into one, or in other words: heaven on earth! I mean, books and art are two great things that go great together, its like milk & cookies, peanut butter & jelly, or cake & my face. The world needs more of these things.

Then, the video continues and we see the string quartet. I’m immediately sent into flashbacks from PachelHELL, and I remember one of my old notes that read “Obe! Violins never solved anything!” but I stuck it out, kept listening, and I wasn’t disappointed. The first notes of the song are super fitting for the arena, because they are a POWERHOUSE! I mean these guys just do not REST! If this song were to play as part of the soundtrack of someone’s life it would probably appear the moment after they accidentally touch someone’s butt while walking past them, and are forced to decide whether or not to acknowledge the situation by apologizing, because that is stressful stuff!

The song continues on to fluctuate between sections that feel calm and somber and other moments that feel angry and violent. In some ways it’s the musical equivalent of the mood swings I feel when someone tells me they’re voting for Trump. The song even ends on a both physically and metaphorically “plucky” moment similar to when I get up the courage to voice my opinions.

Final Thoughts: You leGATo listen to this. I also highly suggest watching the video, because the musician’s faces seem to express everything from “Oh no, we’re in TREBLE” to “Is the music drunk? Its SLURring everything,” and even “Does my instrument really smell like that?” I might even listen to it a few more times myself for good MEASURE.

There’s a game my friend and I play, where we name the ten people in the world we would want to have dinner with. Any ten people — celebrities, family members, politicians, war criminals. The only rules are that they must be alive, and they must be real (sorry, Harry Potter). Our lists change from month to month and year to year, and every once in a while we check in with each other: “Who’s sitting at your dinner table these days?”

Bill Hader is the only person who has been on my dinner table roster since its conception. For those who may not know, Bill Hader is an exceptionally talented alum of the sketch-comedy bastion Saturday Night Live. He’s funny, but he’s also smart-funny: his timing, his writing, his mannerisms and versatility — his comedy is just so unbearably wonderful. Bill Hader is one of my very favorite comedians, and two weeks ago, I got to meet him.

Well, not exactly. But I got to sit in the front row of his Q&A show at my university, mere feet away from him, which was good enough for me.

I had never sat in the front row at a performance before… nor at anything, come to think of it. The front row is to be avoided: it’s the least comfortable position in a movie theater, visually and acoustically undesirable for an orchestra concert, awkward on an airplane because you can’t fit your carry-on under the nonexistent seat in front of you. But sitting in the front row at Bill Hader’s Q&A was thrilling. Eye contact and snarky comments were directed at us, just because of our proximity. There was no fourth wall: we may as well have been on stage with him. It was intimate, and exciting, and hilarious, and I left the auditorium feeling like I knew Bill Hader, almost as a friend.

And just when I thought the weekend couldn’t get any better, I managed to score a last-minute ticket to the Emerson Quartet‘s sold-out performance at Eastman the next day, from a friend who could no longer attend. The ticket was in the cheap, student-discount price bracket, and as a result was — you guessed it — in the front row. Continue reading →

Today’s SUGGESTED LISTENING for the CLASSICAL MUSIC SKEPTIC is a new addition to my library that totally took me by surprise! Pretty cool. Enjoy Michael Atkinson’s arrangement of “Year of Our Lord”by Sufjan Stevens, performed below by Osso string quartet (USA).

About the Composer & Arranger:

Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens(1975- ) grew up in Michigan and now resides in Brooklyn, NY, where he is the sole staff member of Asthmatic Kitty Records‘ Brooklyn office. While studying at Hope College, he released his debut album (A Sun Came) on the Asthmatic Kitty label; the album set the stage for Stevens’ future music with its incorporation of folk and world elements and a broad variety of acoustic instrumentation — everything from banjo to oboe to sitar, mostly played by multi-instrumentalist Stevens himself — lending much of his music a distinct, symphonic sound. Stevens has taken on many unique musical projects, including his “Fifty States Project,” for which two albums of folk-style songs dedicated to different U.S. states (Michiganand Illinois) have thus far been released; an electronic album about the Chinese zodiac(Enjoy Your Rabbit); and an award-winningtone-poem/film project about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway(The BQE) commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (“the home for adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas”). For these latter two projects, Stevens collaborated with…

Composer/arranger/performer/conductor/producer Michael Atkinsonis an accomplished NYC-based French hornist, having played with such prestigious groups as the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus, and currently serving as Solo Horn with the innovative Knights orchestra (which I wrote about here). A Juilliard alum, Atkinson can be heard on numerous film, commercial, and video game soundtracks, and has played in several award-winning Broadway pit orchestras. Atkinson has had his arrangements performed across a broad range of genres, including at the famous Ravinia Festival and even on Genghis Barbie‘s debut album (I wrote about them here). Atkinson’s collaboration with Sufjan Stevens stretches back several years and has resulted in many awards and much critical acclaim, especially regarding the Run Rabbit Run project from which today’s Suggested Listening was selected. Continue reading →